Two new cases of alleged looting in tornado debris

Wednesday

Apr 2, 2014 at 12:01 AMApr 2, 2014 at 11:17 PM

Michael Smothers of GateHouse Media Illinois

Tazewell County prosecutors now have six cases of alleged looting to review after two people were arrested this week amid the rubble that remains from the November tornado that tore through Washington.

Only one person has been formally charged in court so far, as investigations in the cases focus on the difference between theft and “aggressive scrapping,” a prosecutor involved in the cases said Wednesday.

“Each case is different” among the three that have produced the six arrests, said Assistant State’s Attorney Kevin Johnson.

Percy Jones, 63, and Mary Wade, 52, both of Peoria, were arrested Monday after neighbors reported seeing them on a property among more than 800 homes destroyed or damaged to the point of being uninhabitable by the EF-4 tornado that struck the city Nov. 17. Jones reportedly had entered a basement area of one of the homes.

They were released Wednesday on notices to appear May 6 in Tazewell County Circuit Court on charges of felony theft.

The couple, however, have not yet been formally charged in court with that crime.

Neither have three other Peoria residents — Sherry Wallace, 51, Andrew Wallace Jr., 25, and Antonio Giles, 30 — who were arrested Dec. 10 after they were seen picking through items generally left along curbs as residents cleared their properties of items and debris in the weeks after the storm. Those three were released with court dates not yet set.

Ayron Casey, 51, of Eureka is scheduled to appear in court April 14 on the felony theft charge filed against her following her arrest in early December for allegedly looting properties in the tornado’s path.

She told police she figured “enough time had passed” by then to permit her to pick through the sites. In her car police found about 30 items that included picture frames, holiday decorations, a decorative bell and storage bins, according to a prosecutor’s court affidavit.

Details of Wade’s and Jones’ visit to the tornado site remained under investigation pending the decision on whether to formally charge them with looting, Johnson said.

Washington police, meanwhile, continue around-the-clock patrols of the neighborhood just north of Washington Road and west of the city’s downtown area where the tornado left its heaviest damage.